The King's Dedication

The nation of Israel was founded by people of nations that existed long before it. Abraham was born in what is today Iraq (see Israel's Iraqi Roots and 'Raghead' Racism). Eleven of the sons of Jacob (who the LORD renamed as "Israel"), who became the Israelite patriarchs (i.e. from Levi came the Levites, from Judah came the Jews etc.; see Are Levites 'Jews'?) were born in what is today Syria, of mothers who were Iraqi-Syrian (see Who Chose Rebekah? and The Rachel Prophecies). Two other of the Israelite patriarchs, Ephraim and Manasseh, were born in Egypt of an Egyptian mother - who was very likely a black woman, as were the original Egyptians (see The Family Of Ham).

From all of those "foreign" people, the LORD God (Who was Jesus Christ; see 'Before Abraham Was, I AM'; also The LORD And The Two Angels) created a nation called Israel, as a living prophecy of the coming Kingdom of God. The LORD was the King, and Israel was His nation. There was no division between religion and politics because the nation was created to worship the LORD, their King - just as people who make it to salvation will do in the Kingdom of God (see The Gospel of The Kingdom of God).

As a matter of administering His people, just as Moses had done (see The Prophets: Moses), the LORD granted them human representatives of Him to serve Him as the "king" of the people. Those kings were never to become politicians, merely prostituting themselves for votes - they were servants of God, who had the responsibility to guide the nation in God's Way. The "constitution" was God's Law i.e. "17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them":

"17:14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; 17:15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
17:20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:14-20 KJV)

"There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in My Law"

When the original Temple in Jerusalem was completed, a dedication ceremony was held. Who conducted the ceremony? A "religious" leader? Yes, but that religious leader was the king. King Solomon dedicated, not merely a Temple, but dedicated the nation to their King - the LORD. The nation wasn't composed of "churches." The nation was the Church, the people of God (see The First Christian Church).

"6:10 The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 6:11 And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel.

6:12 And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: 6:13 For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,
6:14 And said,

O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and showest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts: 6:15 Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him; and spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day.

6:16 Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.
6:17 Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David.

6:18 But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! 6:19 Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: 6:20 That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place.
6:21 Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive." (2 Chronicles 6:10-21 KJV)

The LORD remained the ultimate Judge and King of His nation. Israel was created for no other prophetic purpose than to be the nation that truly obeyed the LORD. As such, there was no "separation of church and state" - as numerous "Christian" nations around the world do today. There was no banning of the Ten Commandments from the schools or court houses - as numerous "Christian" nations around the world do today. The Israelite kings (see Kings of Israel and Judah) were warned by the LORD that if ever they began to do that, they, their nation, and their Temple, would fall. When they defiantly did it anyway, they, their nation, and their Temple, fell.

"36:11 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
36:12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. 36:13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel. 36:14 Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

36:15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. 36:17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. 36:18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 36:19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof." (2 Chronicles 36:11-19 KJV)

1305: William Wallace, a Scottish patriot, was hung, drawn and quartered for treason by Edward I.

1367: Gil Alvarez Carrillo de Albornoz died at age 57. A Spanish soldier and cardinal, he paved the way for the return of the papacy to Italy from Avignon, France, where the popes lived from 1309 to 1377 (see The Struggle For The Papacy; listen also to our Sermon Constantine's Papacy).

1541: French explorer Jacques Cartier landed near Quebec on his third voyage to North America.

1572: In France, Catholics massacred thousands of Huguenots (French Protestants), under orders of Catherine de Medici, advisor to her son, Charles IX, King of France.

1711: A British attempt to invade Canada by sea failed. The territory at the time was held and defended by France.

1775: King George III declared the New England colonies in open rebellion.

1784: The people of an area of western North Carolina (now in eastern Tennessee) declared themselves to be an independent state, under the name of the State of Franklin. It lasted only 4 years after it wasn’t accepted into the Union.

1821: Mexico was declared independent of Spain by the Treaty of Aquala.

1833: Britain abolished slavery in its colonies, freeing 700,000 slaves. Slavery continued in the former colonies that by that time had become the independent United States.

1866: The Treaty of Prague was signed, formally ending the Seven Weeks' War between Austria and Prussian-led German states.

1914: At the start of the First World War, Japan declared war on Germany (30 years later, Japan and Germany were allies in the Second World War; listen also to our Sermon The European World Wars).

1914: In the town of Dinant, Belgium, during the First World War, German soldiers murdered 612 civilian men, women and children, the youngest a 3 week old baby held in its mother's arms. The Germans gave as their reason that Belgian civilians had fired on them while they were repairing a bridge.

1917: During the First World War, the Ontario cabinet passed an order-in-council that provided for the city of Berlin, Ontario to change its name to Kitchener, effective September 1.

1921: Feisal I was installed as King of Iraq.

1926: U.S. film "idol" Rudolph Valentino died, causing world-wide hysteria and a number of suicides.

1931: Adolf Hitler (see Presidential Quotes On War, Terrorism, Religion) of Germany and Joseph Stalin of Russia signed a non-aggression pact (that Hitler violated with his invasion of Russia a few years later), leaving the way open for Germany to attack Poland.

1942: The Battle of Stalingrad began. Although the city was reduced to rubble by the Germans, the Russians fought on, and after 6 months the Germans surrendered.

1952: Frederick George Kenyon died at age 89. The British archaeologist and language scholar devoted his life to discovering Biblical parallels in ancient Greek papyri, convincing critics that science does not disprove the Bible.

1980: The Polish communist government agreed to negotiate directly with striking Gdansk shipworkers.

1990: East and West Germany announced that they would unite on October 3, ending four decades of post-World War II division.

1991: Radical Moscow city leaders took control of the Soviet Communist Party's headquarters, seizing documents and sealing offices, as anti-communism swept the nation in the wake of a failed hardline coup.